A group of black and white poles.
The installation sought to bridge centuries of artisanal expertise with neuroaesthetics, the effect of art and design on thinking and emotion. “People think of paint as flat,” Reddy notes, “but it’s alive—absorbing, reflecting, and transforming depending on the environment.”

April 24, 2025

Words: Nicholas Tamarin

Photography: Reddymade/Asian Paints

This Installation Celebrates The World’s Largest Paint Library

An immersive installation by Reddymade constructed for India’s Architecture & Design Film Festival Mumbai celebrated the launch of the world’s largest paint library.

Reddymade Brings Color And Artistry

  • 15 designers, engineers, and builders led by Reddymade founder Suchi Reddy
  • 5,300 colors in Asian Paints Chromacosm
  • 1,628 8 ½-foot-tall rods
  • 2,200 colors in the installation
  • 780 square feet

Ancient tantric paintings used to awaken states of heightened consciousness from the Rajasthani book Tantra Song, long an inspiration for Reddymade founder Suchi Reddy, rose into focus as she ideated Chromacosm commissioned by Indian paint manufacturer Asian Paints for the launch of its Chromacosm architectural color system at the Architecture & Design Film Festival Mumbai earlier this year.

A painting with a black circle on it.
A piece of paper with a circle on it.

Reddy’s early water­ color sketch reimagines paint as a 3D medium that interacts with space, light, and shadow.

A drawing of a cube with a green and white pattern.

A still from Asian Paints’s film shows the development of the new system, composed of thousands of shades.

A table with many different types of art.

Part of Reddymade’s two­ week design process involved creating installation renderings in Rhinoceros, AutoCAD, and Photoshop that show a walkable grove of tall tubular steel rods coated in the myriad Asian Paints colors.

A drawing of a fence with a lot of pencils.
A square object with a pattern on it.

Chromacosm, the book depicting the full library, comes out in May.

A book sitting on a table with a black background.

Chromacosm was constructed over one month on the grounds of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, where the ADFF Mumbai was held January 9 to 12, the Asian Paints colors drawn from Indian craft traditions, such as Ajrakh and Kalamkari block printing.

A large display of tooths.

Visitors walked amid the vertical rods, which trans­itioned from black to vivid hues, symbolizing how color emerges from within the depths of the cosmos.

A woman standing in front of a wall of colorful paper.

The installation sought to bridge centuries of artisanal expertise with neuroaesthetics, the effect of art and design on thinking and emotion. “People think of paint as flat,” Reddy notes, “but it’s alive—absorbing, reflecting, and transforming depending on the environment.”

A group of black and white poles.

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